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AIG – nonsense to keep employees that blew up the economy

ECONOMY — FRANK: IT’S ‘NONSENSICAL’ TO RETAIN AIG EMPLOYEES TO UNDO THE MESS THEY CREATED: Edward Liddy, the CEO of the bailed-out insurance giant AIG, will testify on Capitol Hill this morning, “where he’ll reluctantly defend millions of dollars’ worth of bonuses doled out to employees” despite the government bailout. On the front page of the New York Times’ business section yesterday, economic writer Andrew Sorkin argued in favor of paying out the AIG bonuses. He cited “the sanctity of contracts” to warn that “the business community” would panic if the government started “abrogating contracts left and right.”

The Progress Report sat down with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. When asked to respond to Sorkin’s claim that only AIG employees can navigate the economy out of the mess they created, Frank dismissed it as “nonsensical.” “If they really understood what they did in the first place, seriously, they probably wouldn’t have done much of it. Secondly, when you are trying to undo something, it is often not the case that the people who did it are the ones to put in place,” Frank said. Earlier this week, Frank called for the firing of AIG executives who presided over the collapse of their firm. “[M]aybe it’s time to fire some people. We can’t keep them from getting the bonuses, but we can keep some of them from continuing in their jobs,” he said.